WARSAW – There was nothing to write home about for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as Warsaw put an exclamation point on and undefeated NLC title taking a 46-30 win at home last night.

 

Plymouth had a masterful first quarter running out to a 14-10 lead at the break, but Warsaw recovered and clamped down on a Plymouth offense that could put just five points on the board in the next two quarters.

 

“Once you get the ball down in the paint area we haven’t seen anybody like them, just their physicality,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Bales. “There’s no doubt that affected our shooting percentage inside. We had some good looks especially in that second quarter.”

 

Plymouth had opportunities but went ice cold shooting, while Warsaw also turned up the heat on the boards keeping the Pilgrims from grabbing a single offensive rebound until late in the third quarter.

 

“Josh (Anders) struggled a little field goal percentage wise but we got the ball to him in good spots,” said Bales. “We just could not finish. On top of that we did not do much on the offensive boards either. Not a good combination for us in that stretch.

 

“I thought we got a little impatient and that’s an example of playing within ourselves. I thought they were giving some guys some space and we tried to do too much in that stretch.”

 

Plymouth’s effort was to no avail as Warsaw used the stretch of the second and third quarter to capture and stretch a lead that they wouldn’t surrender. The Tigers remain the state’s only unbeaten team at 19-0.

 

“Overall they just played better than us,” said Bales. “I thought they were the aggressors in getting the ball to the paint and then it just comes down to we have to hit shots from the outside and get stops when we needed to and we just could not do it.

 

“Its that stop-score-stop mentality and obviously did a better job than us.”

 

Meanwhile the Tiger guard combo of Kyle Mangas and Paul Marandet were a potent one-two punch.

 

“I don’t know what else we could have done defensively,” said Bales. “You work on it in practice but it’s their speed in doing it. That’s something that’s it’s very difficult to simulate and they are very smart. Mangas especially playing off screens he reads the defense very well.”

 

Plymouth is 14-5 and plays at Penn on Tuesday.

 

Score by Quarters

Plymouth 14 16 19 30

Warsaw 10 22 34 46

 

Plymouth (46) – Neidlinger 0 0-0 0, Barron 1 1-2 4, Eveland 1 2-2 4, Carmichael 0 0-0 0, Felke 2 2-2 7, Hilliard 1 0-0 3, Anders 3 2-2 8, Friar 2 0-0 4, Davidson 0 0-0 0, Tharp 0 0-0 0 Totals 10 7-8 30.

 

Warsaw (46) – Mangas 5 9-10 20, Marandet 5 6-8 16, Rhodes 1 2-2 4, David 1 0-0 2, Miller 0 0-0 0, Sandovall 0 0-0 0, Johnson 0 0-0 0, Burish 0 0-2 0, Schmidt 1 0-0 2, Minix 0 0-0 0. Totals 13 19-26 46.

 

3 Pt. FG – Plymouth 3-13 (Barron, Felke, Hilliard), Warsaw 1-3 (Mangas).

Rebounds – Plymouth 17 (Anders 7), Warsaw 28 (David 7).

Assists – Plymouth 6 (Eveland 2), Warsaw 7 (Marandet 2).

Steals – Plymouth 6 (Eveland 3), Warsaw 6 (Marandet 3).

Turnovers – Plymouth 8, Warsaw 7.

Fouls (Fouled out) – Plymouth 21, Warsaw 9

 

JV Score – Plymouth 50, Warsaw 41.